Eva's Solace
by LittleLizzieZentara
Summary: Reading death fan fics was usually difficult for Caskett shippers. But they were especially difficult for Eva. Because Caskett was her solid ground in a mixed up world that made no sense. The doctor said she had retrograde amnesia. A term that seemed strangely familiar... Spoliers up through 4x23 "Always."
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, first thing-no offense is meant to ANY fan fiction writer who has written a death fic. Some of those stories are the most well written that I have ever (usually accidently) read. But for a Caskett shipper who writes 'fluffy angst' and emotionally doesn't do well with reading anything else, running across one of those stories can put me into a major funk. To get out of those funks, I usually just imagine a 'Castle/Beckett was only dreaming and he/she wakes up and sees that their partner is just fine' scenario. That tends to do the trick for me. But I have talked to others who aren't writers and they have told me that they don't tend to whip up a story in their heads whenever they are trying to fall asleep or waiting at the doctor's office and forgot to bring a book or….I was talking about this with EvaKAlways and mentioned how I had thought about writing down one of my 'It was only a nightmare' scenario and she said she would be glad if I did so that she could read it when she stumbles across a death fic (or a permanent break-up fic, which are almost as difficult to read as death fics). Although this has seriously morphed from the original idea….But I'm okay with that, since there are plenty of well-written nightmare fics out there already.**

**So here it is, another one of my 'I was GOING to wait until this was finished to post it' things. But I'm really curious what you all think of this and where you think it's going. Although Natalie Elizabeth and EvaKAlways (who have the inside scoop) be careful not to give any spoilers! **

**EvaKAlways-if I didn't get your personality right, sorry about that. I'm just kind of using a general Caskett shipper template for the character since I don't know exactly how you'd react to every situation in this story. (That also goes for any of Eva's family members) Amazingly, neither Natalie nor I will be in this story. LOL **

**Flashbacks are in italics.**

**Disclaimer: If only…. I wish I COULD do character development as well as Andrew Marlowe. If only he taught creative writing classes….**

* * *

_Why?!_

This time Eva didn't even try to hold back the tears that made a steady trickle down her cheeks. She'd held it together through the first story, although she still wasn't quite sure how. By the end of the second story she couldn't stop shaking. Now, after the third…

Three death fics in a row. _None _of which had a 'major character death' warning or even 'tragedy' as one of the story genres.

Hurt/comfort? Really?

Romance/angst? Could they possibly be _serious_?

And the third just said 'General.' True, it had been that author's first story (although _why_ he or she would have their first story be a 'death fic' Eva couldn't imagine) so she could give the writer a little lee-way. Especially since she knew she could never write any type of story herself. She admired others who had the gift but it wasn't one she shared.

_It's just a story_, Eva reminded herself sternly.

Which it was.

But it wasn't.

It was _Caskett_. There was no such thing as 'just' when it came to Caskett. Not for Eva. It had been that way since the first moment she'd seen Castle's (okay, technically Nathan Fillion's, but anyway) deep blue eyes sparkling with child-like glee as he realized (well, technically as he said what the script writer had written, since he wasn't _real _and so didn't 'realize' anything) "Our killer's a super hero!" That had not only been the first episode of her favorite TV show that she saw, but the first scene of that particular episode.

Four months ago now that felt like four years….

* * *

_Nothing._

_ She remembered nothing._

_ The doctor had told her that her name was Eva, a claim substantiated by the couple standing anxiously on either side of her hospital bed, who looked to be in their late forties or early fifties. Her parents, evidently._

_ Retrograde amnesia, the doctor had called it._

_ That, for whatever reason, had sounded familiar._

_ Odd, when nothing else had._

_ Eva let out a sigh of relief when 'her parents' (it just seemed weird to call them that, since to her they were total strangers) left to go get something over at the hospital cafeteria. It was draining to keep up the pretense of being 'fine.'_

_ After a few minutes of trying to remember something, anything at all about her life and winding up with nothing other than the beginnings of a headache, Eva picked up the TV remote on the rolling table by her bed and began flipping through the channels._

_ Until she saw HIM._

_ Eva gasped. _

_ He was….._

_ He was…._

_ Excited that their killer was a super hero?_

_ Eva didn't know whether to roll her eyes or laugh._

_ Were all cop shows like this?_

_ Wait. How did she know it was a cop show? Was she remembering something?_

_ Maybe she had seen it before the car accident that had stolen her memory!_

_ The commercials ended before Eva could figure it out. And once _he _was back on the screen she couldn't focus on anything else._

_ It didn't take Eva even ten minutes to figure out that the two lead characters, Castle and Detective Beckett, were in love with each other._

_ Evidently she was a romantic because once that realization hit her interest in the episode doubled. No tripled. No….there just wasn't enough numbers to express how much of a difference that knowledge made to her. Times infinity, maybe._

_ Although was that a real number?_

_ Didn't matter. Because that wasn't the point._

_ The _point _was that for the first time since she'd woken up in a hospital bed without even the slightest hint of whom or where she was, Eva felt like she finally had something to hold on to. Like she was standing on solid ground instead of on a ski boat in the middle of the ocean during a hurricane._

_ "Castle," she whispered, startled when the sound of her voice reached her ears. She had heard it before, of course, but she hadn't meant to say the man's name aloud._

_ Well, the character's name._

_ Because, obviously, he wasn't real._

_ Eva scowled at the pain that slashed through her heart at the thought._

_ Was she like this before? So emotionally invested in fictional characters that it impacted her real life?_

_ She had a feeling the answer was yes._

_ "Kiss him!" Eva yelled at the screen when the duo stood watching the elevator doors close on another 'writer and his muse.'_

_ For some reason that word, muse, irritated her._

_ But it was mild in comparison to her frustration with the female homicide detective._

_ Okay, so she wouldn't kiss him in the precinct. But couldn't they hurry into the next elevator and finally give into the feelings they'd been holding in for so long?_

_ So long?_

_ Eva almost laughed at that. She'd only known about this couple for about half an hour. The fact that she felt like she'd known them for years was a bit ridiculous._

_ "Eva, what in the world?"_

_ "What?" Eva whipped her head around to look at the startled woman (her mother, she had to remember this woman was her mother) standing at the doorway._

_ "What are you shouting about?" the woman _(_her mother, her mother, her _mother_; Eva needed to think of her as such even though in her mind she was the next thing to a complete stranger)._

_"I-" How could she possibly explain. Her mother (Yes! She finally got it right!) wouldn't understand. Eva herself didn't even understand._

_ "She should have kissed him," she mumbled._

_ "What?" Her mother (she got it right again!) walked over to her, put her hand on her shoulder and looked over at what had so caught her daughter's attention._

_ "What is that?"_

_ "A TV show, Mother," Eva said, rolling her eyes and wincing at the sharp pain in her head that the small action caused._

_ "But why were you yelling?"_

_ "It's nothing." She was lying but she didn't have the physical or mental energy to try to explain. Lying was easier._

_ "Eva-"_

_ "Please, Mother, I'm tired. I just want to go to sleep. But…"_

_ "What?"_

_ "Would you-" Eva felt silly for asking but she _needed _to watch more. It was the only thing that made sense in this mixed up situation. "The show is called 'Castle.' Would you see if you can find any seasons on DVD? Please? It will give me something to focus on. And, who knows, maybe it will help me remember."_

_ "How is a TV show going to help you remember anything?" her mother wanted to know._

_ A reasonable question. But Eva didn't have any reasonable answers._

_ "All right, I'll see what I can find," her mother said with a sigh._

_ Relieved that she didn't have long to wait before she could see _him _again, Eva fell asleep before her mother even finished shutting the door._


	2. Chapter 2

**Happy 5****th**** birthday, Castle! **

**I'm so glad I was able to get this done today. I just HAD to post a chapter in honor of Castle's 5****th**** birthday.**

**Eva, I kept some details you gave me but changed others. Thanks for letting me take literary license with your life. **

**Disclaimer: Nope, still not mine. But I'm dealing with that better than I used to….**

* * *

Eva didn't want to open her eyes. It was bad. She didn't know what it was, but she knew it was bad. The fear thrumming through her was the worst she'd experienced in the four months and two days that she could remember.

She heard footsteps, but she didn't know whose. The thought of yelling for help was contemplated for a brief moment but then discarded. She couldn't chance it.

Eva frantically tried to gain a foothold, but there was nothing but air beneath her feet. It was when one of her hands slipped that she knew.

The nightmare.

She'd had it at least a couple times a week since she'd first watched 'Always.' It made no sense. Her Caskett shipper heart had finally gotten when it most longed for. If she was going to dream about Castle, it would have made much more sense to dream about when Beckett had _finally _(seriously, what had taken the woman so long?) realized that all she really wanted was Castle.

Instead, it was this. Playing an endless loop in her mind until she was freed by her alarm clock startling her awake. Or the one time when her mother had burst into her room because, as her mother told it, Eva had been shouting for Castle.

It wouldn't have been so bad if it had gone like it played out in the episode. She would know Castle wasn't there and the glare of Iron Gates wouldn't intimidate her. The lecture the Captain gave would be less than meaningless. And then, after a brief stop to the swings so that she was well and truly soaked through by the pouring rain (_why _hadn't she just gone straight to the loft? Eva had never quite figured that part out) she would be able to tell Castle what she had been holding back for so long.

Whoever said that a person could control their dreams didn't know what they were talking about. Or maybe Eva hadn't been given that particular gene. Because there was nothing she could do but let the dream play out.

Again and again and again.

A dream that ended nothing like 'Always' had.

"BECKETT!"

Eva choked back a sob. "I'm here," she whispered.

"BECKETT!"

Same as every other time, with the second attempt she was able to shout, "I'm here, Castle! I'm here!"

"He found her!" Eva heard Ryan yell.

"Beckett, hang on!"

"Oh, god." The words came out in a pained whimper as Eva felt the last of her fingers lose their grip. "CASTLE!" she screamed.

"KATE!"

Eva couldn't fight the need to open her eyes, to look at Castle one last time as she fell.

Even though it never was the last time. It only felt like it was.

Every single time.

Castle's stricken expression when Beckett had been shot hadn't come close to this. The man looked completely shattered. Eva couldn't imagine him looking much worse if he lost Alexis.

In the crazy way of dreams, it didn't matter how far she fell, she could see his expression as clearly as if she were standing mere inches from him.

She never hit the ground. She would be close enough that she could see cracks in the concrete and then in the next instant she would be desperately clutching the edge of the roof, her eyes closed tight.

And once again she heard the footsteps….

* * *

The rhythmic beeping of her alarm clock was a welcome relief. She didn't really need one since she didn't have anywhere she had to be, but having a structure to her days was soothing.

Eva had been putting off deciding what she was going to do with the rest of her life, hoping that her memory would come back and she could pick up her life where she had left off.

With the _slight _change of having her Monday nights blocked off for Castle. Her mother had said she didn't need to set aside the _whole _night; she could easily take an evening class at a local community college, go out with friends, do _something_.  
Not going to happen. Between Twitter and reading fan fiction, the hours before 10:00pm were booked solid.

Although she did try to avoid spoilers….

It helped that she lived on the East Coast. She felt bad for the 'Westies' as they were sometimes called on Twitter. To have to wait an extra three hours….She had some Twitter friends who were in that boat and she didn't envy them a bit.

Eva knew her fixation on Castle worried her mother. Her father, too, although he never mentioned it and just patiently listened as she went on and on about her favorite TV couple.

In minutes Eva was dressed in her standard skinny jeans and t-shirt, her shoulder-length blonde hair pulled back in a messy bun (a style she had adapted as her own after she first saw Beckett's hair done that way) and waiting for her computer to boot up. Her blue eyes were steely with determination as she impatiently drummed her fingers on her desk.

Once her desktop wallpaper appeared on the monitor Eva's lips widened in a big-toothed grin (much like Beckett's had when she found that Castle was safe after the bank had exploded in 'Cops & Robbers). Eva didn't need a mirror to know her expression was the same as the detective's after that life-affirming moment; she could feel it. That, and the fact that it was the same reaction she had every time she saw the picture on her screen, which depicted that very scene.

Yet another time Beckett should have kissed the man.

Eva shook her head at herself. How could she _still _be irritated by that? After all, Caskett was together now. That was all that mattered.

And Caskett wasn't the important thing right now.

Well, they were. They always would be. But they would have to go to the periphery of her mind long enough for her to accomplish her self-appointed task of picking classes for her first year at a community college. Apparently her grades had been mostly A's and B's and she had already taken her SAT's so getting accepted wouldn't be a problem.

Entering the web address of the nearest community college, Eva thought of the career ideas she had already discarded. Of course her first thought had been to become a homicide detective, but it just wouldn't be the same without Castle. No, as it was on Castle.

Yeah, that's what she meant.

Being a lawyer didn't appeal to her, either.

At the moment she was leaning towards psychology.

Maybe forensic psychology…

"Sir, I don't know who you are, but if you don't leave right now I'm going to call the police!"

At the angry tone in her mother's voice Eva ran from the room and hurried down the stairs, skidding to a stop when she saw whom her mother was yelling at.

Nathan Fillion.

Standing in her doorway.

Except….

Wait a minute.

He didn't look like Nathan Fillion.

Well, he did. But he didn't.

He looked like Castle.

Eva wasn't sure if the distinction would make sense to anyone else. Maybe other Caskett shippers. But Eva had seen enough interviews with the actor to notice that the real man, although he had some things in common with Castle's personality, was actually quite different from the character he portrayed.

And the man her mother was currently glaring at was all Castle.

All desperate, not letting anyone get in in his way Castle.

As soon as his gaze landed on her Castle, Nathan, whoever he was, rushed towards Eva.

"I'm not giving up!" he told her, his hands gripping her shoulders as he shook her slightly. "Do you hear me? I am not giving up! I don't care how long it takes. I love her!" His gaze darted around the room, landing briefly on her mother and then her father, who had just entered the room. "She is the extraordinary Kate Beckett and she will get through this."

To her surprise, when he looked back at Eva the man's eyes turned pleading. "I'm here, Kate. I'm here. Whatever you need, it's yours. You just need to tell me…."

* * *

**Anyone confused? :) It will all make sense soon...**


	3. Chapter 3

**The mystery is solved! **

**Disclaimer: If I owned Castle, I just might know for sure whether there is going to be a season 7 or not. Maybe.**

* * *

Eva didn't know what to say, what to do. This was Castle, Richard Castle. A man who didn't exist. Except he was here. She could feel his hands gripping her shoulders. His voice echoed in her ears. There was no way it was the actor who portrayed the man who stood before her.

Or did he maybe know someone named Kate whom he was close to and for some bizarre reason he thought that woman was her?

No, that couldn't be it. He had referred to her as 'the extraordinary Kate Beckett.'

Except she wasn't.

Was she?

How would that even be possible?

She didn't look like her. She didn't talk like her. She wasn't even her age. Being older might have been possible, but Eva knew she was twenty-one years old. Even if her 'parent's had lied to her, she couldn't just magically shed over ten years. Unless she was extremely young-looking for her age….

No, the whole idea was crazy.

"Get your hands off my daughter!"

At the angry shout coming from her normally easy-going father Eva turned and planted herself firmly in front of Castle. Not questioning the instinctive need to protect him, just knowing it was there, Eva stared her father down.

"Eva, get out of my way," her father ordered as he stomped his way towards them.

"He's not hurting me, Dad." She knew his anger stemmed from worry and rushed to reassure him. "He's just worried about…me?" Eva couldn't help turning the last word into a question. She looked back over at Castle, hoping that he would have a story that would explain what exactly was going on.

A story that might actually be the truth.

"Anything you need," Castle said again, his voice a mere whisper.

She _needed _him to pull a story out of thin air, to make sense out of what was making less sense with every passing second.

If she was Kate, shouldn't he know that? Castle seemed to have this innate knowledge about what Kate Beckett needed. Why would now be any different?

What Castle did next was exactly what she didn't need.

He disappeared.

Then she was back on that rooftop.

And the dream started again.

But….

But she _wasn't _dreaming this time.

She couldn't be!

' And this dream was different.

Instead of Castle looking down at her, it was Kevin Ryan. She felt a brief brushing of his fingers against her own before she started to fall.

Any moment now, she would hit the hard concrete below.

Or she would be back on the rooftop, the scenario playing on an endless loop.

Her own personal hell.

Because this time, Castle wasn't there.

Eva had no idea how much time had passed when she realized that she was still falling and yet getting no closer to the street below.

A single tear slid down her check.

This was it, then? How things were going to end?

With no memory of her former life, whatever it had been?

No last glimpse of Castle?

No last minute reprieve, a rescue that seemed next to impossible?

Just this endless falling until…

Until what?

Eva didn't care anymore what was real and what wasn't. At some point, this would all end. She was going to die.

And there was only one thing, one person, she wanted.

_I just want you…._

Her speed suddenly accelerated but she knew she was no closer to hitting the hard ground.

_I almost died, and all I could think about was you…._

Wind whipped around the strands of hair that had come loose, tickling the edges of her eyes. She was cold, so cold.

So alone.

_I just want you._

Another tear joined the first.

It was dark.

Why was it dark?

"Castle," she choked out on a sob.

She couldn't see.

Why couldn't she see?

She picked up speed, she didn't know why or how.

Never had she moved so fast.

No free fall should be this fast.

"I just want you, I just want you, I just want you," the words spilled out of Eva's lips over and over again until, without warning, the ground rushed up to meet her.

All she could do was scream out the name that gave her more comfort than any other:

"CASTLE!"

* * *

The lights were bright. So bright.

Was she dead?

Her head hurt. Things weren't supposed to hurt once you were dead.

Not that she had firsthand knowledge of the fact. But it would be cruel of the universe to let her go through the afterlife with a splitting migraine.

"Kate, can you hear me?"

Castle.

That was Castle.

She'd know his voice anywhere.

She tried to open her eyes but they were too heavy and she groaned in frustration at her failed attempt.

"Just wan' you," she mumbled, relieved when she heard the sound of her voice. "Castle," she let out the word, his name, on a sigh.

Beeping.

Eva heard beeping.

Was that her alarm clock? Did that mean everything had just been a dream? Had she fallen asleep at her computer while trying to look up college classes?

If it was, that meant she'd be able to open her eyes.

Nope, still too heavy.

She wasn't _that _tired, was she?

She didn't feel tired. At least, not the kind that came from lack of sleep.

"I'm here, Kate," Castle's voice seemed to almost float towards her. "I'm right here. Just open your eyes."

"Can't," Eva's voice was still that soft mumble, anything stronger taking more energy than she had at the moment. "Bright. Hur's."

Eva heard a click and the brightness pressing against her eyelids softened back to a soft darkness.

She didn't like the darkness. Fighting with all her strength, her eyes finally opened.

And met Castle's relieved gaze.

"You're going to be okay, Kate," Castle took one of her hands in both of his.

It felt nice. Like an anchor in this sea of confusion.

Because she still didn't remember.

Eva took a slow look around what she could see of the room she was in. She'd been in one often enough to recognize a hospital room when she saw it.

Had she been shot again?

Wait, again? She hadn't been shot. Kate had.

If she _was _Kate, why didn't she remember? Why had she thought Caskett was nothing more than a fictional TV couple if it was, in fact, them?

If it was true, she hadn't forgotten everything.

She remembered enough to piece together enough for 'episodes.'

Dr. Burke. She needed to talk to Dr. Burke.

The sooner the better.

* * *

It wasn't until the next day that she was finally able to see the psychiatrist. The doctors had needed to do their necessary fussing over her and by the time they were done she could no longer keep her eyes open. She'd had a mild panic attack at the thought of the nightmares she might have, or that she might now be dreaming and wake up to find none of it was real. She tried to hide it but Castle knew. Of course he did. He'd promised her, again, that he wasn't going anywhere, and the panic had slowly receded.

It was shortly after ten in the morning when the psychiatrist walked into the room. Ryan and Esposito had just left after getting her statement. Captain Gates must have pulled some strings for it to be those two men who were allowed to question her. They had been able to tell her a lot more than she had been able to tell them. The most important thing being that the coma had occurred because of her fall from the roof. Or, more accurately, the landing. She was just glad that there had been a balcony several stories down to break her fall. She'd still had numerous broken bones and a brain injury severe enough to create a four-month long coma, but she had survived.

"I'll just-" Castle started to say as he rose from his position next to Kate's side.

"No!" Eva frantically grabbed his hand, her eyes pleading. "Stay. Please. I need you."

Castle merely nodded and sat back down.

Eva understood the troubled look in his eyes. Kate Beckett wasn't one who easily gave in to needing someone, much less giving voice to that need.

But she did need him. She had begun putting the pieces together in her head that morning when Castle had left to get a fresh change of clothes and to check on Alexis.

Dr. Burke started by making sure she understood about retrograde amnesia. She did, mainly because of the 'episode' that had dealt with that very topic. The things that her psychiatrist said were almost identical to what that other psychiatrist had said.

"What do you remember?" Dr. Burke finally asked in his deep, calm voice.

"Bits and pieces," Eva said. "Enough to fill episodes, but not much else."

"Episodes?"

The man hadn't been informed of this aspect of her situation, Eva realized.

"In my 'dream,'" _Please let it have been a dream_, "when I was in the coma, I had dreams. I was living this whole other life. I wasn't 'me.' I had the amnesia, but I didn't look like me, talk like me, any of it. I didn't even think I, Castle, any of this, was real. Just," she hated to admit it, but she knew it was important for Dr. Burke to know everything to be able to best help her, "characters on a TV show."

Eva was surprised when he didn't give any outward reaction. He was silent for a moment before asking, "Why do you think that is?"

Why would Kate Beckett do that? Eva had spent enough time over the last four months analyzing the woman enough to come up with a reply after only a few moments of thought. "Because…because I didn't want to face it?"

"Face what, Kate?" Dr. Burke gently prompted.

"That," Eva swallowed and let out a slow breath before saying, "I had missed my chance. That even if I survived," Falling from the rooftop, another sniper bullet, whatever, "it might be too late."

"Too late for what, Kate?" The question came from Castle.

Watching the show, Eva had thought Kate's concerns about Castle's rejection were ludicrous. But now….if she actually was Kate….

They were still ludicrous, she realized. If what she had seen in those episodes were actually memories, maybe thinking of Kate Beckett and Richard Castle as fictional gave her the distance she needed to finally be completely honest with herself.

Castle loved Kate Beckett. He made it obvious with everything he did, even the mistakes he made.

And if that was her…

Castle loved her.

He _loved _her.

Eva had been so frustrated that Kate hadn't let Castle help her after the shooting, had lied about remembering what he said. Had been utterly disgusted when the words, "the most important thing in my life," had come out of the woman's lips. And been filled with so much relief when the detective had gone to the loft and Castle had so readily forgiven her.

But that last part hadn't actually happened.

"I'm sorry, Castle," she said, forcing herself to look into the man's eyes. "I'm so sorry."

"Kate-"

"I almost died, and all I could think about was you." It felt so good to get those words out. "Even thinking I was someone else, nothing mattered to me more than you."

_Nothing mattered more…._

She _was _Kate Beckett. She really was.

Memories suddenly started flooding her mind. Not memories from the 'episodes' but memories that only Kate Beckett would have. Her parents taking her to her first day of preschool. Spring break when she was a kid up at her parents' cabin. Her first day at the police academy. The day she was promoted to detective. Eating burgers at Remy's with Castle. The murderer in 'A Hail of Bullets.' In' Flowers For Your Grave.' In 'Hell Hath No Fury.' In _all _of Castle's books. Every single one.

"I know who the killer is!"

Dr. Burke wasn't quite able to hide his surprise at the outburst.

"Kate, are you saying…?" Castle's face had gone white and she knew what he was thinking.

"Not my mother, Castle. In your books. In every one of your books."

"Is that all you remember, Kate?" Dr. Burke asked.

Kate shook her head, wincing at the pain of the movement. "Everything. I remember everything. I remember _me_."

Still, she hadn't forgotten all that she had thought, all she had felt, as Eva. As a Caskett shipper. It had given her the time she needed to work through everything, to see where she had gone wrong, to realize what she truly couldn't bear to lose.

Castle.

'Eva' had been so frustrated at 'Kate's' lack of openness with Castle. Even in the coma-dream, she hadn't said 'I love you' to Castle, even though he had said it to her four times. They weren't keeping score, but she _knew _how he felt.

Had he really thought she had lied about remembering because she didn't feel the same way? She'd been so obvious, even when trying so desperately to hide it.

She held her hands out to Castle, grateful when he took them in his. "I mean it, Castle. I just want you. Not to find my mother's killer. Not to bring my sniper to justice. I'm done. My job, my mom's case, _my _case, they don't come first anymore. You do."

"Kate-"

Was that hesitation in his voice? Was she wrong? Was her unwavering certainty that would forgive her, that he would welcome her with open arms, nothing more than wishful thinking?

Castle had put his heart on the line more than once.

It was her turn now.

"Castle," Expressing her feelings in words had never come easy to Kate but she would do this, being with him was worth whatever risk she had to take, "I love you."

Castle was suddenly peppering her with kisses, on her cheek, in her hair, on her eyebrow. When he finally pulled away his eyes were shinning with a depth of joy that Kate wasn't sure she'd ever seen before. "I love you, Kate. Always."

Their word. That word said, 'I love you' deeper than those three words ever could.

"Always," she agreed.

She had her life back. Better than that, she had the life she had wanted but denied herself for far too long.

But she would always be thankful to 'Eva'. Because she had enabled her to realize what really mattered most: Castle.


End file.
